As the year draws to a close, I am desperately trying to clear out my massive backlog of untried or partially tried fragrance samples. Unless something is so horrible that it necessitates instant removal (i.e., a scrubber), my practice is to try everything at least twice, and if it warrants a review (that is, if I can think of something to say about it) I usually give it 3-5 tries. But there are many fragrances that just don't capture my attention one way or another on the first try, and they tend to spend months in the purgatory of the "try again some day" basket. Such was the fate that befell L Eau de Parfum, the fragrance inspired by the Showtime series The L Word and launched by Apothia earlier this year.
L Eau de Parfum was created by perfumer Yann Vasnier and includes notes of angelica, juniper, cardamom, violet leaf, Florentine orris butter, vetiver, sandalwood, musk and crystal amber.
I am not sure why L Eau de Parfum failed to move me on the first try; it is a lovely rendition of iris, one of my favorite fragrance notes, and Yann Vasnier also created another beloved iris: Divine's L'Homme de Coeur. The two share some notes (angelica, juniper, vetiver) but the L Eau de Parfum is a considerably softer, less masculine scent, not quite so brisk as the Divine. It starts with a nice burst of spiced green citrus that vaguely recalls yet another beloved iris, Curated by Colette's Three AsFour, but without Three AsFour's fizzy, high-pitched quality. The dry down is much milder: iris over pale musky woods with a touch of amber.
It is earthy, but not the buried-underground earthy of The Different Company's Bois d'Iris. It is not quite cool, not quite warm, but somewhere in between, and once it settles it stays relatively close to the skin. I should think either sex could wear it quite easily. Nicely done, and well worth a try for iris lovers.
Kudos to Apothia, by the way, for offering all of their own scents in 15 ml bottles. If only other fragrance companies would follow suit, I'd buy a lot more perfume than I do. The L Eau de Parfum is $30 for 15 ml, $75 for 50 ml, and samples are available for $5 each.
In the interest of full disclosure, please note that Apothia is an advertiser on Now Smell This.
Okay, I'll retry it. 🙂 I'm very fond of Velvet Rope, even though it smells better on other people, and I think If is gorgeous if big florals are your thing. This one … I can't even remember, but I know I have a sample here somewhere….
The Divines are excellent, especially the two male scents (I'm a devotee of l'Homme Sage), so I'm certainly intrigued by this one. I see they do samples, but unfortunately don't send internationally (the bane of my perfume life!), so I suppose it will be a trawl through eBay…
If is nice for what it is, but not my sort of thing. I'm sure it is their biggest seller by far though.
I like Velvet Rope too, though, and think both VR and the L Eau de Parfum are very unusual scents. Hope they'll do a 4th…
L'Homme Sage is a great scent. All the women's Divine scents are still languishing in purgatory too, and I need to dig those out. They were pretty but didn't capture my fancy the way the 2 men's scents did.
Drat on the int'l shipping 🙁
It's funny, because it failed to move too on the first try and is still sitting in *my* “try some other time” drawer. Were it not for your lovely review, it would have spent all its life there…I am going to give it a 2nd try tonight.
It is a very elegant fragrance. I very much enjoyed it. Now, I want to revisit ThreeAs4 again.
Will be curious to hear what you think, M. I would call it a sleeper sort of scent — not tons of pizzaz, like the Colette, but very nicely done and not at all dull.
V, ThreeAsFour is just a wonderful scent, and really nice for fall. Shame it was LE 🙁
I still have not got around to even TRYING this… the other Apothias I tried were nice enough, but somehow after this lovely review I still don't think this will be quite up my alley. But now I'm thinking I need to get for my full-time guinea pig, my sister, because this def. sounds like something she'd carry off with aplomb, especially if it's “softer” as you say.
I am trying to get through my backlog, as well, but it's oft times almost a maddeningly long list – here's wishing it goes smoothly and quickly for you 🙂 Besides, you've gotten through so many of the VERY many new releases already this year, and just thinking about the number of them you've tried astounds me!
Well, racing through 6 scents today so perhaps I'll catch up eventually! I need a full time guinea pig too, that would help with the testing 🙂